In its Q1 earnings report, Pinterest has recorded its highest quarter of user growth and revenue growth, surpassing half a billion users. Melinda Petrunoff, Australian country manager at Pinterest, told Mediaweek it is “an incredibly exciting moment for the business.”
Petrunoff puts the growth down to the improvements that the platform has made in relation to actionability and engagement.
“We’ve seen revenue growth hit a high for the two years since 2021, up 23% year on year,” she said.
“We have always been a platform for people to come and seek inspiration, but we’ve now made it so much more actionable. That’s never been more evident, particularly in Australia – clicks and saves on shopping ads have increased 130% year on year.”
Pinners are coming to the platform to get inspiration, and shopping on platform while they’re there. Petrunoff said advertisers are seeing high engagement, and improvements to lower funnel performance.
“We doubled our results on Q4, we’ve doubled it again year on year in clicks that we’re driving out to advertisers.
“On Pinterest, ads are seen as content. What we’re seeing in Australia is our users save ad content, because they are ideas and it’s absolutely relevant. That’s why we’re seeing that growth.”
It’s not just the lower funnel where Pinterest is seeing growth, either.
“We’re still very strong in the upper funnel, 97% of searches on Pinterest are unbranded. But we know users are coming to shop and therefore our responsibility is to fulfil that, to follow them and make it as seamless as possible.”
The growth of Gen Z
According to Petrunoff, what sets Pinterest apart form other social media platforms is the fact that people come to the platform with intent and with purpose – “that’s completely different to other social media platforms where people are leaning back and there to be entertained.”
There is one audience in particular that exemplifies this trend, with Gen Z rapidly signing up for the app to both seek inspiration and to take action.
“Our biggest cohort on platform is Gen Z. Globally they are 40% of our user base, in Australia, it’s 47%.”
It’s a unique situation for a social platform to be in: Gen Z is notorious for jumping on the latest trends, and lesser known for taking up established media. Founded back in 2009, Pinterest is bucking this trend.
“For a platform that is as established as Pinterest to now have a growing user base with the youngest generation is pretty incredible,” Petrunoff said.
“Pinterest has done a really good job at understanding what users want, and in a world where social media is so prevalent, being true to its values of being positive by design, and being inclusive.”
‘Unique opportunity’: Pinterest in Australia
“Australia is an incredibly important market for Pinterest,” Petrunoff said.
“Whilst Australia is a smaller population, we’re an incredibly wealthy market from an ad market perspective – that presents a really unique opportunity.
“The way Australian Pinners behave on platform is very similar to our other markets around the world, which means we know the products that we build and release are going to resonate and provide a fantastic user experience.”
See also: Why Pinterest’s Melinda Petrunoff says that “it pays to be positive”
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Top Image: Melinda Petrunoff